You're Not Alone, Zuko
by Aileen Scott
Summary: Begins after the episode of Zuko Alone. The prince comes across a village consumed in fire and discovers a girl dying in the ashes.


Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar:The Last Airbender. I do, however, own the characters that I created and added to the story.

A story within Book Two: Earth, between "Zuko Alone" and "The Chase"

Chapter One:

"Outcast in the Ashes"

"I love you, Zuko. Never forget that. And never forget who you are." Her soothing voice warmed the air around them and colored the world, making everything clear and clean, fresh and wonderful. Zuko turned to look up at his mother, her ebony hair and dark bronze eyes, the smile that spread to all her features whenever she looked at him. He breathed in her perfume and tried to memorize her face at that moment so he could remember it forever, because suddenly he flet as if he needed to. A far-off, fearful look began to cross her face like a storm cloud slowly covering the sun. She put a hand to his ceek and looked into his eyes. "Never forget who you are," she said more urgently.

"Mom, watch out!" He yelled, and jumped up as his father and siser grabbed his mother and threw her back into darkness. Zuko let out a strangled war cry and lunged toward them only to find his arms chained to a red stone wall. Ozai and Azula laughed at him as blue lightning crashed and darkness overshadowed everything. Then Ozai's mocking voice boomed through the black.

"Catch this creature," he said, and a little blue and white leemur hopped in front of him, "And your mother will be returned to you. If you fail she will die, and you will be less than worthless."

All the boy could see now was the leemur, its white fur and the blue arrow on its head seemed to glow against the pitch black that surrounded it. Zuko found he was no longer chained and then lunged at the creature, his arms grabbing at air as it umped ten feet in an instant and truned to look back at him innocently. The boy charged atain, running low to the ground, but the animal moved with otherworldly speed, dodging and weaving, changing direction in half an instant to escape Zuko's grasp again and again. Finally, He collapsed into the ground, completely spent and exhausted, and watched as the leemur turned sad eyes on him.

"Let's be friends," it said, twitching its large ears.

"I can't," breathed Zuko, "I have to save my mother," he slowly raised himself to his feet, "earn the respect of my father." He felt himself growing in strength and anger. "Don't you understand? I can't!" Flames burst into existance around him and the smell of smoke burned in his nostrils as he struck at the leemur one final time before a realization jerked him awake.

He really was smelling smoke. Zuko jumped to his feet, scanning the area. Immediately around him all was peaceful, but over the tops of the trees to his right he could see a giant rising cloud of black smoke.

"Up," he told his ostrichhorse, and pulled himself onto its back. He then steered it toward the edge of the grove. If it were trees in the distance that were on fire, no doubt it would spread to where he was.

The eastern end of the trees was not far, and shortly he was clear of them. Then he found himself in a large desert that stretched on to mountains a long way off. The fire prince uttered a curse and turned his mount to the south. He would ride to the southern end of the trees and find the river again, otherwise he could not hope to make it across the desert.

After half a day he reached the southern end and turned west. Then he saw the source of the smoke; it was a small earth-kingdom village. A few buildings in the center had been completely destroyed, all that was left were piles of ashes, and most of the other buildings and houses around it were completely consumed in fire. Village people had formed a line to the river, passing along buckets of water and splashing the houses with water. But many of the villagers just stood and watched, horrified, because the buildings nearest the middle were too full of the fire for there to be any hope of saving them or extinguishing the flames. No one paid any attention to Zuko as he slid down from his mount and led it into the village. He walked up to a man staring into the fire.

"What happened here?" He asked. The man turned to him. He was old and hunched over, leaning heavily on a knotted walking stick. He wore a faded and tattered earth-kingdom military uniform.

"Who are you?"

"I'm just a traveler, passing through." The man squinted at Zuko, as if trying to read this newcomer's mind and see his intentions.

"You came at a bad time," he barked. "Those ashes there?" The man pointed to the remains of the building in the center. "That was the smithy. It exploded." He cast a suspicious eye on Zuko, "We don't know why."

"I just got here," Zuko said flatly.

"Well, you should probably be moving on. As you can see, we have nothing to offer travelers like yourself at the moment." Zuko gave the man a small nod and moved to remount his ostrich-horse when a slight movement caught his eye. He stopped and turned towards the wreckage again. He stared at it, and saw amongst the ashes a dark hand weakly grasping at the ground.

"There's someone in there," he said. The man furrowed his brow at Zuko.

"What?"

"I said there's someone in there, in the ashes," Zuko walked tentatively towards the remains of the smithy.

"What on earth..." the man scoffed. Zuko began to walk more quickly, he could now see the small hand more clearly. It was reaching out from beneath a pile of black ash. He kneeled down next to it and carefully reached out to touch it. The hand was very hot. Quickly he brushed the ash away from the arm, then the shoulder. He dug out the neck and head. Patches of the skin were completely burned away, but he could still see that it was a teenage girl, not much older than himself. Zuko put the back of his hand to her mouth and felt a slight brush of air.

"This girl needs help!" He shouted to the villagers, who, seeing that there really was someone in the ashes, finally roused themselves to help her. Zuko turned his attention back to the girl. He began to dig the rest of her body out of the ashes as a girl rushed up beside him. She was young, and her eyes were wide and frightened.

"Who is it?" She reached for the face, her hands shaking. She examined it closely, and then seemed to relax a little. "Oh," she said as another woman kneeled beside them. She was a little older and less frightened than the other girl.

"Where's the Healer?" Zuko asked them. They didn't answer. "The healer of your village, where is she?"

"We don't have a doctor here," said the younger girl. When she saw the surprised look on Zuko's face she added, "when anyone gets really sick, we send for the healer in the next town."

"Well, send for that healer, then!" The girl jumped at the harshness of his voice and ran to another villager nearby.

"These are bad burns," the older woman said, feeling the girl's skin. "In some places the skin is completely gone…"

"You need to get them washed," Zuko told her, hoping she would catch on and take control of the girl's well-being. "The burns need to be bandaged before they get infected." The woman did not respond, she was tracing her finger along an old scar on the girl's cheek. Suddenly she pulled away and stood up with a dark look on her face.

"That girl," she said, "I knew she was trouble!" Zuko looked up at the woman and the crowd that had begun to gather around them. The woman pointed to the slowly dying girl, "This is the girl you thought was fire-nation, Josuke!" The old man Zuko had spoken to earlier lurched closer. Then he spat on the ground.

"That fire-nation spy in the smithy? I'll bet you any of my medals she caused the explosion!" The old man's shout started a commotion among the rest of the villagers, but the girl's unmoving, black- and red-splotched form failed to incite vengeful anger.

"She got what she deserved," a few of them said to each other and the old man yelled, "Let her die in the ashes where dirty fire-benders belong!" But then the crowd dispersed, looking for things to salvage and more buckets to help put out the fire. Zuko looked down at the girl for a moment, then whistled to his ostrich-horse. When it trotted over to him, he pulled the green blanket from its back and carefully wrapped the girl in it. Then Zuko lifted the supposed fire-nation spy and carried her to the river.


End file.
